Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1897 — WEYLER IS A FAILURE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WEYLER IS A FAILURE.

Disastrou* Result* of Hi* Year's Commaud in Cnba, Under a recent date a Madrid new*, paper man, writing to a London paper, gives a graphic account of Gen. Weyler’* year of command in Cuba. It has from the beginning been marked with unexampled severity toward all classes of Cubans. One result of this has been the disappearance of the Moderates and Autonomists, some of whom have been driven into exile, others into the ranks of the Separatists. Another result has been to desolate a large part of the island.- Gen. Weyler has literally made a solitude and called it peace. But it is not peace. With au overwhelming army he has made “military promenades” through the four provinces of Pinar del Rio, Havana, Matanzas and Santa Clara, burning and ravaging everywhere. The insurgents have avoided coming to a pitched battle. So he has declared there are no rebels there and those provinces are pacified. But it is not so. No sooner has he turned back to Havana than the patriots are in the field again, masters of the whole country outside the few fortified towns, and often menacing the latter and inflicting severe losses upon the Spanish army itself. , The correspondent gives an impressive official summary of the losses sustained since the outbreak of the war. Down to December, 1890, Spain put into Cuba nearly 198,000 men, including 40 generals and 084 field officers. Of these

there have been killed in battle or have died from wounds 2 generals, 12 field officers, 107 subalterns and 1,707 men. Losses from yellow fever and other diseases leach the appalling aggregate of 1 general, 30 field officers, 287 subalterns and more than 20,000 men. Although the official statistics are silent on this point, it is known that fully 20,000 men have been sent back to Spain in an invalid condition, most of them with shattered constitutions, many of them to die. The total loss, then, to the Spanish army aggregates more than 44,000, or more than 22 per cent of the whole. Against this the Spanish claim to have killed in battle 212 rebel officers and 13,091 men, to have wounded 41 officers and 3,522 men, to have taken prisoners 34 officers and 941 men, and to have received 22 officers and 2,594 men who have voluntarily surrendered. These figures, especially those of the killed, must be taken with much allowance, remembering that in the Ten Years’ War the Spaniards claimed to have killed and captured more rebels than the whole population of the island. But even taking them at their face value, they show a total loss to the insurgents pf only 20,457, or considerably less than half the Spanish losses. No wonder that, in view of this showing, Gen. Weyler realizes that he has failed.

An avalanche in Kashmir, involving the loss of life of several English officers, which has been paining many people in England, turns out to be the invention of a native servant who had run away from one of the officers.

GENERAL WEYLER.